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Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

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Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#21

Post by nether »

poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

Now the question is, whether you would have overcome your phobia without psychedelics.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#22

Post by poke53281 »

nether wrote: post #21
poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

Now the question is, whether you would have overcome your phobia without psychedelics.

Counterfactuals are always difficult, but in this case I am sure that the answer is somewhere between "no" and "after years of hard work". Certainly it wouldn't have happened overnight -- whereas with psychedelics it very literally did happen overnight. Even if the psychedelics were simply a shortcut, there was a lot of benefit in taking them: within a year of my trip I'd completed 15 credits worth of maths courses, and the rest of my education and career benefited accordingly. I'd been trying for years to overcome those anxiety issues organically and was still only a fraction of the way there, so the non-psychedelic path would not have yielded results in time to benefit me in university.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#23

Post by oafitupa »

poke53281 wrote: post #13
meowface wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds quite incredibe. In fact, very incredible, considering you just registered that account and this is your only post. But I believe you may be telling the truth. Do you think the same could be applied for other disciplines, like programming and computer science?

Yes, this is a dummy account; my regular account here has 4497 karma, but is linked to my real name. The conservatism of some of my clients -- and the fairly public role I sometimes must play -- is such that I'd rather not have my former illegal exploits broadcast quite yet. Hopefully you can understand! In answer to your question: yes, I very much believe that it can be applied to programming and computer science --…

Then saying your exact karma wasn't a great idea, was it.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#24

Post by notastartup »

poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

having same phobia of math (just about blanked on any midterm or final in university) this is intriguing.

can you describe your experience more in detail? what in particular did you discover during the process how to overcome fear of math?

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#25

Post by m-photonic »

oafitupa wrote: post #23
poke53281 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a dummy account; my regular account here has 4497 karma, but is linked to my real name. The conservatism of some of my clients -- and the fairly public role I sometimes must play -- is such that I'd rather not have my former illegal exploits broadcast quite yet. Hopefully you can understand! In answer to your question: yes, I very much believe that it can be applied to programming and computer science --…

Then saying your exact karma wasn't a great idea, was it.

I wouldn't assume that's his actual karma score.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#26

Post by rdtsc »

poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

On a funny note: Someone shared a video with me, which is a joke trailer for Project Lectorium -- a Russian project to collect videos of lectures, math, economics, engineering etc.

Anyway, in one of its parts there is a professor who explains group theory and he mentioned how a "friend" (wink wink) of his used to take drugs. And while on a trip he saw this bubbling substance, it talked to him and it told him "ask me any questions?". So he asked whether something will happen in his life. But the bubbling substance responded "homologies are null/(singular?)". And so since then he had spend most of his life trying to answer that question.

If anyone speaks Russian, here is the actual video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqAf5lOJZew

Having read your comment, it reminded me of it.

Also presumably Paul Erdős was fond of amphetamines. I wonder if there are many other cases or stories of LSD or other drugs influencing mathematical discoveries.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#27

Post by userbinator »

poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

While I also believe that they can have beneficial effects, and that research shouldn't be stopped, at the same time it's worth keeping in mind the side-effects:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD#Potential_adverse_effects

Have you experienced any?

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#28

Post by sopooneo »

poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

In Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned, the protagonist's father is fond, in later years, of attributing his business success to his lifelong religious devotion. The hero doubts it.

I have been temped in the past to equate this magnate character's conviction to PG's belief that it was Lisp which allowed Viaweb to do so well.

I do not disaprove of religion, functional programming, or psychedelics. But in the instances described, I tend to view them mostly as analogous to Dumbo's magic feather.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#29

Post by pyre »

sopooneo wrote: post #28
poke53281 wrote: post #9

Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself -- at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fea…

In Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned , the protagonist's father is fond, in later years, of attributing his business success to his lifelong religious devotion. The hero doubts it. I have been temped in the past to equate this magnate character's conviction to PG's belief that it was Lisp which allowed Viaweb to do so well. I do not disaprove of religion, functional programming, or psychedelics. But in the in…

With respect to psychedelics, they actually do affect your brain. You'd be hard-pressed to tease apart what portion of the outcome was unaffected by the drug when claiming that the results were all due to the Placebo Effect.

Re: Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment

#30

Post by lutusp »

pyre wrote: post #29
sopooneo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned , the protagonist's father is fond, in later years, of attributing his business success to his lifelong religious devotion. The hero doubts it. I have been temped in the past to equate this magnate character's conviction to PG's belief that it was Lisp which allowed Viaweb to do so well. I do not disaprove of religion, functional programming, or psychedelics. But in the in…

With respect to psychedelics, they actually do affect your brain. You'd be hard-pressed to tease apart what portion of the outcome was unaffected by the drug when claiming that the results were all due to the Placebo Effect.

That's true, but there's no chance to have a control group. No one having an acid trip can possibly compare his subjective experience to someone who's taken a sugar pill. And without control groups and other strict controls, human studies are next to useless.

The above means that the Placebo Effect cannot be realistically guarded against or dismissed.

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